Scientology VS Christianity currently tied

[PrayingMantis]

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Why should you believe the Christian revelation, the essence of which is that if you repent, believe that Christ is the Son of God, and accept Baptism, you will be saved? Because you are a sinner in need of salvation. You have a longing for happiness which is unfulfilled by any natural good, and your own inability to live up to whatever ethical ideals you believe in should prompt you to realize that you are in need of assistance to become the person you know you should. Christianity offers answer to both of these needs: it offers total fulfillment in union with the God who created you for Himself, and it offers the grace to become who you are really meant to be: a child of God.

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OK you have now convinced us that you are indeed a christian, and that you do have what you call "reasons" to believe in the god of christianity. Any decent scientologist should be able to make same convincing arguments with regard to scientology (I have actually read "reasons" to belive in scientology which are better than your arbitrary list of "reasons" to believe in christianity).


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So, the reason I gave above is the most general and the most universally true.

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I'm sorry, but it has absolutly nothing to do with "true". Certainly not more than any scientological reasons (or any other possible religion/cult).

Why can't you and others just accept the very simple fact that christianity and scientology are essentially the same? Christianity is a more popular, and older story, but so what? Take 2 musicians. One is more popular and older, the other is not. Well, they are still 2 musicians. The 2nd might be actually better in some important senses. The question of religion is a question of of cultural context, of social arrangements. It has nothing to do with "truth". It is like wearing a certain shirt and saying that it is "true", as opposed to another shirt some other person wears.

You are confused. You have this fantasy world you believe in, with god and jesus and everything, which is fine. But it is not reality. It is a collective image in your mind, like a tv show you're watching along with many others. You might want to wake up from it, you might want to keep dreaming. That's the only 2 options you have.

[BTirish]

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So, the reason I gave above is the most general and the most universally true.

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I'm sorry, but it has absolutly nothing to do with "true". Certainly not more than any scientological reasons (or any other possible religion/cult).

Why can't you and others just accept the very simple fact that christianity and scientology are essentially the same? Christianity is a more popular, and older story, but so what? Take 2 musicians. One is more popular and older, the other is not. Well, they are still 2 musicians. The 2nd might be actually better in some important senses. The question of religion is a question of of cultural context, of social arrangements. It has nothing to do with "truth". It is like wearing a certain shirt and saying that it is "true", as opposed to another shirt some other person wears.

You are confused. You have this fantasy world you believe in, with god and jesus and everything, which is fine. But it is not reality. It is a collective image in your mind, like a tv show you're watching along with many others. You might want to wake up from it, you might want to keep dreaming. That's the only 2 options you have.

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By claiming that Christianity is nothing but a fantasy and a story, you are ignoring that Christianity contains specific propositions about the nature of the world and of God that are either true or false. You obviously seem to suppose that they are false.

You suggest that I should "just admit that I believe in this fantasy" and stop thinking it has anything to do with the truth, even though I'm free to continue to believe it. That's a much more ridiculous suggestion than the suggestion that one should believe in a divine revelation. I should "believe" it and also acknowledge that it's all just a bunch of hooey?

By the way, what were those reasons in favor of Scientology that are more appealing to you than the reasons I gave in favor of believing in Christianity? Just curious.

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By the way, what were those reasons in favor of Scientology that are more appealing to you than the reasons I gave in favor of believing in Christianity? Just curious.

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I didn't see any reasons Christianity is believable, I saw a list of alledged benefits in choosing to believe. The problem with that is you would have to believe in the religion to believe that those 'reasons' are meaningful. An objective observer can therefore never reach that point.

EDIT: of course, Scientolgy also contains many claims of how much happier you will be after signing up, again they are nothing more than comparable.

[PrayingMantis]

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By claiming that Christianity is nothing but a fantasy and a story, you are ignoring that Christianity contains specific propositions about the nature of the world and of God that are either true or false.

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Christianity's specific propositions about the nature and the world have the same true/false value as any other religion/cult, or any story I have ever read in a book or saw in a film.

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You obviously seem to suppose that they are false.

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Well, as propositions about the nature and the world? If you think they are "true" in the purest sense you are an idiot, no offence. It is all stories you are told. Stories, stories and stories. You BELIEVE they are true, which is fine, as I already said. Children believe the stories they are told are true, it's natural. However, you have absolutely zero evidence in reality to _know_ that that they are indeed true. In that sense, they are not more true than any other religion, cult, or imagined story. It is very simple, actually.


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You suggest that I should "just admit that I believe in this fantasy" and stop thinking it has anything to do with the truth, even though I'm free to continue to believe it. That's a much more ridiculous suggestion than the suggestion that one should believe in a divine revelation. I should "believe" it and also acknowledge that it's all just a bunch of hooey?

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Of course. This is not ridiculous at all. There are some great advantages in believing in a fantasy, or even, believeing in an actual lie, while you know it is a lie, a story, complete fiction.

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By the way, what were those reasons in favor of Scientology that are more appealing to you than the reasons I gave in favor of believing in Christianity? Just curious.

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Well, there are quite a few. I don't care to list them as I don't care to turn this into some kind of a stupid contest between 2 random stories (as others like this to be). But in all seriousness, If you are honestly interested, any thinking behind any religion or cult, ridiculous as you think it is, can offer some very interesting insight and perspective into the nature of human-beings, life, death, personality, mind etc.

Yes, including scientology and christianity.